LAPD sets L.A. on fire

By Mark Luedtke

Government schools teach us the policeman is our friend, that he is honorable and trustworthy. They teach us government is a benevolent institution that works on our behalf. We’re so thoroughly brainwashed that despite the evidence of our eyes – the pervasive violence and corruption of government we’re immersed in all our lives – most Americans still tend to trust the police and government in general. But every now and then government agents drop the thin veil and expose themselves for the lawless, violent thugs they are. When that happens, they expose the true nature of government. That recently happened during the Los Angeles Police Department’s manhunt for Iraq war veteran and former LAPD officer Chris Dorner.

In a country where police corruption and brutality are as American as apple pie, the LAPD stands out as one of the worst departments in the country. As an LAPD trainee in 2008, Dorner claims to have witnessed his supervisor kick a man in the face in an act of police brutality. Dorner had no incentive to lie because he couldn’t possibly win his case if he were lying. Further, he had strong disincentive because filing it would make him a target for his fellow officers. On the other hand, the LAPD had strong incentive to cover up police brutality. The LAPD wants people to believe it’s cleaned itself up from its past of ubiquitous corruption and brutality. Of course, the LAPD sat in judgment of this case instead of an uninterested party.

The outcome was predictable. The LAPD found there wasn’t enough evidence to support a claim of police brutality. The LAPD acted in its own interest. Had the LAPD stopped there, we’d never have heard of Dorner. Instead, the LAPD fired Dorner for making a false accusation. They took his job and ruined his reputation. This might seem uncalled for, but it makes perfect sense from the LAPD’s perspective. Dorner, a mere trainee, had the temerity to challenge the LAPD’s carefully crafted, fragile image. That made Dorner a threat, so they destroyed him.

Like a classic tragic hero, Dorner’s tragic flaw was he truly believed in the system that produced him. He worked within the system to get his reputation back, but that system is designed to protect the state and crush its enemies. Government investigations and appeals processes are designed to fool people into thinking the system is fair, building support for the state. But not one in a million people who challenge the system wins.

Most Americans fade away when the government steamrollers their lives. Dorner took revenge in the way government had taught him: he killed those he blamed.

It’s interesting to contrast how Dorner and the LAPD dealt with civilians during the manhunt. Dorner endangered himself in order to avoid harming civilians. Dorner didn’t hurt the man in San Diego whose boat he tried to steal, nor the man whose car he carjacked. He tied up a couple in a Big Bear cabin. Their escape led to Dorner’s death. ABC News called this a gaffe. Not wanting to harm innocents is a gaffe to the establishment.

Dorner’s actions were evil and cannot be justified, but the LAPD is clearly the greater evil. They shot up a pickup truck driven by two small Asian women delivering newspapers, putting one in intensive care. I counted 31 bullet holes in a picture of the truck. They shot up another truck driven by a white surfer 70 pounds lighter than Dorner, who is black. Neither truck matched the description of Dorner’s. Fortunately the cops were so incompetent they didn’t kill these people.

The people of L.A. were so afraid of the police, they put signs on their trucks and on their T-shirts saying they weren’t Chris Dorner and asking the police not to shoot them. The police also searched houses and cars without warrants. People in L.A. were far more scared of the LAPD than Dorner, and rightfully so. The police were acting with impunity as a lawless gang out for street justice.

An apologist for the police, posing as a civil rights attorney, advised, “‘They don’t know where [Dorner] is, and they’re going to be edgy and jumpy,’ she said. ‘Don’t get in their way. They’re in a special state of consciousness right now and they’re not used to being hunted.’” That’s a sad excuse justifying the ultimate predator ignoring the law and shooting innocents.

Once the police found Dorner and had him trapped in a cabin, they could have waited him out and captured him. Instead, they followed the Waco protocol and injected the cabin with highly flammable tear gas and then fired pyrotechnic rounds into the cabin to ignite it. Just like at Waco, they kept firefighters from putting out the blaze. The police claim they set the fire to flush him out. Baloney. They executed him because they didn’t want him to have a say in a trial.

It’s not surprising that people sometimes lose their minds and respond to government’s ubiquitous violence in kind. What’s surprising is it happens so rarely. But as government drags our society down further, it will happen more often.

The views and opinions expressed in Conspiracy Theorist are the views and/or opinions of the author and do not reflect the views and/or opinions of the Dayton City Paper or Dayton City Media and are published strictly for entertainment purposes only.